Date: Fri, 02 Sep 2005 15:01:41 -0500 From: Greg Barniskis <nalists@scls.lib.wi.us> To: Timothy Radigan <tradigan@newrevolutions.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Boot Device Question Message-ID: <4318AFA5.6010306@scls.lib.wi.us> In-Reply-To: <20050902192941.99F0943D45@mx1.FreeBSD.org> References: <20050902192941.99F0943D45@mx1.FreeBSD.org>
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Timothy Radigan wrote: > Hi all, > > Just got done installing FreeBSD 5.4 on a Compaq DL380. The issue I am > having is that when the server reboots, it tries device ad(0,a) and fails. > This is because the root partition is on ad(1,a). > > How do I tell FreeBSD to use ad(1,a) instead of ad(0,a)? Put a boot manager/menu on ad0 (where the BIOS can easily find it when looking for bootables) that will let you instruct the machine that you'd really rather boot from ad1. The boot manager provided with FreeBSD should do, but you might also choose something else (GAG, GRUB, etc.). I usually take the FreeBSD boot mgr. for stable servers and GAG <http://gag.sourceforge.net/>; for personal machines (where I tend to deinstall and reinstall different versions of things often). I've found GRUB to be awfully painful if the partition where its menu config is held gets broken or deinstalled. See section 2.5.3 of the handbook http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-steps.html Although that page describes the FreeBSD install procedure, you can use sysinstall to install just the boot manager without reinstalling the whole works. You might also be able to trick your BIOS into booting from ad1 directly, but (a) I've never tried that and (b) heard it's not really recommended because of unpredictable results. -- Greg Barniskis, Computer Systems Integrator South Central Library System (SCLS) Library Interchange Network (LINK) <gregb at scls.lib.wi.us>, (608) 266-6348
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